


Blood and Promises

by LinksLipsSinkShips



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Blood, Brotherhood, Friendship, Gen, Teenagers, Tropetastic Tuesday, blood oath, tropetastic tuesday 15
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-13
Updated: 2017-06-13
Packaged: 2018-11-13 18:00:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11190381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LinksLipsSinkShips/pseuds/LinksLipsSinkShips
Summary: They'd planned for the future, but they hadn't planned for this.





	Blood and Promises

Link loved when Rhett would talk, standing on the big rock. Rhett would share ideas, dreams, and hopes for the future, making these big promises about the things they’d do and the sights they’d see. He’d talk about how they’d marry really pretty wives who would be best friends, just like they were, how they’d have kids who would be best friends, too. He pondered that they even might have dogs who would be best friends. His voice conjured up visions of them camping together, getting jobs at the same place, taking lunches together at work. They talked about going to Amsterdam, to Paris, to California to see the Hollywood sign. Always the futurist, Rhett was thinking ahead to what life might hold for them 10, 20, 30 years from now. Rhett could talk for what seemed like hours on end.

But even though Link loved listening to Rhett’s big dreams, he’d find himself getting impatient when it seemed like Rhett would  _ never stop talking.  _ Most of the time, though, when it was his turn, he’d realize that he didn’t have that much to say, other than to talk about what Rhett had been talking about anyway, so he got down pretty quickly to give Rhett the floor again. It wasn’t that Link didn’t have goals or hopes or dreams, no. It was that his dreams were so closely tied to Rhett’s, and he felt Rhett just described them better. He knew this, and he was very okay with it. So, he often gave Rhett the floor to speak, the big rock to stand on, and took the smaller rock for himself. They just fit together that way, and they knew it. So even though Link had waited for Rhett to finish and allow him the chance to speak his mind, it only took a few minutes for him to want to be back down on the lower rock again. Rhett was antsy down there, itching to speak his mind, and Link was sick of talking on the bigger one.

He decided to wrap up what he was saying, since he was just repeating their conversation, and jump down from the rock. Just one jump down, one simple jump he’d taken a million times. He looked towards the ground and lept carelessly.

Pain flashed through his vision as his body hit the ground, warmth flowing through his body, his vision getting a little fuzzy. Something went wrong. What should have been muscle memory for him somehow failed, and he found himself writhing in pain. Had he hit his head? His arm? He wasn’t really sure. As he started to get up to assess his damage, he could feel dampness in his hand.  _ Dammit,  _ he thought,  _ how did a fall like that make my palm so sweaty?  _ He was certain the embarrassment of falling off of the rock had left him stunned and his hand so very slick.  _ Ugh, lame!  _ He thought to himself.

He opened his eyes, blinking, and peered down at his palm.  _ Oh no.  _ Blood trickled down his palm, and his eyes started to roll back in his head. Rhett dove forward, catching Link in his arms “No, no no no no no,” he said, holding Link, “no passing out, it’s all gonna be okay, buddy. It’s gonna be okay. Stay with me, man.”

Link struggled to keep his eyes open, focused on Rhett’s voice, but his head was spinning out of control and he started to become dead weight in Rhett’s arms, too overwhelmed by the crimson puddle in his hand.

“Look man, let’s make this better… how can we make this better?” Rhett looked around trying to think of something and found a sharp brown rock, covered in spatters of Link’s blood that had dripped from his cut hand. “Link, look at me,” Rhett patted his friend’s face gently, but sharply enough to make him stir.

Link opened his eyes to focus on Rhett, training his eyes straight forward away from the blood and pain in his hand, and Rhett held his own hand in Link’s line of sight. He dragged the rock along his palm, and blood instantly pooled to the surface. Link winced, but Rhett tried very hard to keep his face calm through the pain, gritting his teeth together until he thought they might break. It hurt so badly, but he couldn’t show that to his friend right now, had to stay strong through it.

He pressed his palm to Link’s. “We’re brothers now, blood brothers. That means what we have is forever, you hear me, Neal? Forever. I’m gonna get you cleaned up, and then we’re going to go see if we can get you some stitches, okay?” He never let go of Link’s hand as he pulled Link up, their blood mixing through their palms, infusing their bond indelibly. “You gotta stay with me, though. Think about all those things we were just talking about, just before…” He knew if he let go, Link would see the blood and faint again, so this was his best shot at getting him to the car. He kept talking to distract Link for the final few steps. “You and I are going to create something big together, something important. We’re gonna do something big, man, you know us. You know how we do things. Maybe we’ll go to film school, or make a movie.”

“Close your eyes, man,” Rhett commanded as he leaned Link backwards against the side of the car. Link obliged, shutting them tightly. Rhett peeled off his shirt and bit the edge with his teeth, tugging at the seams, starting a tear that he’d rip into strips. He carefully wrapped a long strip of cotton from the tee shirt around his friend’s palm, trying not to hurt him, but also trying to keep the wound from continuing to bleed. He tied it carefully, then repeated the process on his own hand. He opened the door for Link. “Okay, let’s go home.”


End file.
